Asia Pacific

Myanmar can draw on UN expertise in tackling Rohingya returns, Security Council told

The United Nations can help Myanmar to defuse inter-communal tensions and create an environment for safe and dignified repatriation of Rohingya refugees, the Organization’s top political official said Tuesday, stressing that the country could also tap the UN’s capacities and experience in tackling other challenges, including democratic consolidation.

UN stepping up support to diphtheria vaccination campaign for Rohingya children in Bangladesh

A United Nations-backed campaign to immunize Rohingya children against diphtheria began on Tuesday in Bangladesh, following an outbreak that has resulted in nine deaths in the camps and makeshift settlements hosting these refugees from Myanmar.

Security tensions may have deepened rights violations in DPRK, Security Council told

People’s rights are reportedly violated in “almost every aspect” of their lives in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United Nations human rights chief warned Monday, stressing that security tensions on the Korean Peninsula should not negate concerns about the situation of ordinary people there.

In their meetings this week, the United Nations political chief and senior officials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) shared the view that the Korean Peninsula faces the most tense and dangerous peace and security situation in the world.

In a year when the #metoo hashtag has inspired women across the globe to tell their personal tales of harassment and unwanted sexual advances in the workplace, a team of female television reporters in northern Afghanistan is promising to “leave no sister behind” by telling the often harrowing stories of Afghan women and girls trapped by abuse and gender-based violence.

Worldwide filings for patents, trademarks and industrial designs reached record heights in 2016 amid soaring demand in China, which received more patent applications than the combined total of applications received by the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the European Patent Office, the United Nations intellectual property agency said Wednesday.

Use fiscal stability to bolster inclusive, sustainable development in Asia-Pacific, UN report urges

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region should make the most of the prevailing stable economic conditions to orient their economies towards a more socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable path, the United Nations development wing in the region has urged.

The total area of opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar has decreased significantly in 2017 to 41,000 hectares, down 25 per cent from the 55,500 recorded in 2015, a United Nations survey released Wednesday has found.

The United Nations human rights chief on Tuesday called for an international criminal probe into the perpetrators of the widespread and brutal attacks that have driven more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar since August, noting that “elements of genocide” against the minority could not be ruled out.